Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Science Policy Alerts

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 24 October 2003:
Vol. 302. no. 5645, pp. 634 - 636
DOI: 10.1126/science.1089402
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Kin Discrimination and the Benefit of Helping in Cooperatively Breeding Vertebrates

Ashleigh S. Griffin* and Stuart A. West

In many cooperatively breeding vertebrates, a dominant breeding pair is assisted in offspring care by nonbreeding helpers. A leading explanation for this altruistic behavior is Hamilton's idea that helpers gain indirect fitness benefits by rearing relatives (kin selection). Many studies have shown that helpers typically provide care for relatives, but relatively few have shown that helpers provide closer kin with preferential care (kin discrimination), fueling the suggestion that kin selection only poorly accounts for the evolution of cooperative breeding in vertebrates. We used meta-analysis to show that (i) individuals consistently discriminate between kin, and (ii) stronger discrimination occurs in species where the benefits of helping are greater. These results suggest a general role for kin selection and that the relative importance of kin selection varies across species, as predicted by Hamilton's rule.

Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: a.griffin{at}ed.ac.uk

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Reduced Egg Investment Can Conceal Helper Effects in Cooperatively Breeding Birds.
A. F. Russell, N. E. Langmore, A. Cockburn, L. B. Astheimer, and R. M. Kilner (2007)
Science 317, 941-944
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Colloquium Papers: Insect societies as divided organisms: The complexities of purpose and cross-purpose.
J. E. Strassmann and D. C. Queller (2007)
PNAS 104, 8619-8626
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Rank and colony defense against conspecifics in a facultatively eusocial hover wasp.
A. L. Cronin and J. Field (2007)
Behav. Ecol. 18, 331-336
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Experimental evidence for helper effects in a cooperatively breeding cichlid.
L. Brouwer, D. Heg, and M. Taborsky (2005)
Behav. Ecol. 16, 667-673
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Reproductive promiscuity in the splendid fairy-wren: effects of group size and auxiliary reproduction.
M. S. Webster, K. A. Tarvin, E. M. Tuttle, and S. Pruett-Jones (2004)
Behav. Ecol. 15, 907-915
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)